THE people of the UK were promised an Olympic heritage in sport facilities. Sadly, Harrow, is losing more playing field space than it will gain.

This past year permission was granted to develop over half of St George’s Playing Field, Headstone, for 27 houses and flats. In exchange, the church will give back under half of the space for sports use, back to the community that bought it in 1923 as a playing field for the local parishioners.

The developers will drain the playing field and landscape it, but it will no longer be big enough for any major team sports events. The 1st Headstone Scouts group will lose space for camping and Duke of Edinburgh awards.

The local residents of Headstone have discovered that no Environmental Impact Assessment was done and hope that a judicial review will quash the Inspector’s decision to build on Open Green Field Playing Space.

On the Kodak site in Harrow there will be a loss of two adult and one junior football pitches, two bowling greens and four indoor badminton courts and 150 gym fitness machines.

The Kodak and Jewish FC’s are losing out, as well as Barnet Municipal and Harrow Lyons who have used these Kodak amenities. In recompense a new replacement health and fitness hall is being built on the Kodak site and facilities will be available elsewhere for these clubs at Bannister and Hive Sports grounds.

There is a lot of talk on how sport players will move around and between boroughs to utilise sports facilities, but, when the chips are down, Harrow is losing much needed sports facilities and with an increasing population this will only lead to fewer people being able to access them.

Where is the sporting legacy promised by the government?

How wonderful it would be if the Church of England gave back the field to the community to provide much needed playing space where it’s needed – in the heart of the community where many people now live in flats and are without their own open space.

MARION GARNER-PATEL

Kingsfield Estate Residents’ Action Group